Noriko Yamagata Ellis

Noriko Ellis, 81, of Harvest, Alabama passed away on Friday, November 25,  2022.

She was born November 25, 1941, in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan to Juro Yamagata and Yoshiko Yamagata.  She was the oldest of Juro and Yoshiko’s two children.  The family moved from Hiroshima to Tokyo when Noriko was in middle school.  Noriko earned her Bachelor’s degree in psychology at Waseda University of Japan in 1963.

In 1975, she opened an English school in Yokosuka, Japan, and she taught English to kindergarten through high school students until 1982. 

In 1978, she met George Ellis Jr. while he was working in Yokosuka for the U.S. Navy.  George and Noriko married in 1980, and with her daughter, Eriko, moved to Panama in 1982, moved to Germany in 1983.  In 1988, they returned to the U.S., and resided in Harvest Alabama.

Noriko was an avid member of the International Women’s Club, International Service Council, Global Ties Alabama, and taught Japanese language and Mathematics to the first-grade students at the Japanese Supplementary School in Huntsville.

Noriko enjoyed reading, writing, travelling, cooking, collecting dolls from all over the world, Japanese dishes, antiques, shopping, and talking with her friends most of all.

Noriko was preceded in death by her parents, Juro and Yoshiko Yamagata, and two step-sons, Deron Ellis, and John Ellis.  Noriko is survived by her daughter, Eriko Ellis of Madison, step-son, David Ellis of Missouri, step-daughter, Carna Snedeker of Delaware, her brother, Jutaro Yamagata and his family in Japan, and her first cousin, Sachinobu Hayashi and his family in Japan.

Her life and memory will live on forever.